Top 10 Hotel Brands on Social Media for September 2014

Hotel brands are becoming ambassadors of culture and influence from the East are inspiring fans in its region and worldwide.

— Joyce Manalo

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Autumn is here and hotels are making the most of the change of seasons to push new promotional content on social media.

The hotels below range from world-renowned hotel brands that have thousands of properties on remote islands to boutique hospitality groups with 30 properties in lesser populated cities. They cater to business travelers, wedding parties, and escapists.

The top ten, below, are calculated using our Skift Score, which takes into account performance on an absolute basis, as well as relative to within a company’s specific industry. Comparing metrics across companies and travel sectors provides an intelligent measure of real-time competitive edge.

Hyatt Hotels outperforms the rest of the hotel brands despite being mediocre in its following. Its rank is attributed mostly to its massive video views on YouTube. The brand is more aggressive in promotions of Fall and Winter sales, multi-hashtag user-generated content initiatives than the other brand leaders on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, based on followers. Kimpton Hotels creeped into the top ten in 9th place, beating Hilton Hotels and on Mandarin Oriental’s tail.

Instagram

The Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts holds the torch for most followers and most likes per image among Sandals Resorts and Marriott International. Its high-quality culinary content resonates well with Instagram’s most popular use case scenario of taking a photo of food before eating.

YouTube

In terms of viewership — not subscribers — this platform had a clear leader: Hyatt curated a mix of diverse topics from far-flung destinations, the guest experience, and viral video trends (the ice bucket challenge). It was more effective than videos about food and drink from Sandals Resorts or the Four Seasons.

Twitter

Although Marriott International has both the highest and double the following of the second and third most popular brands, Hilton Hotels and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, respectively. Its official expansion in China, virtual vacation experience Oculus Rift, celebration of its employees, and being featured on Forbes as the most innovative hotel were newsworthy. Hilton’s beach content and user-generated contests and Four Seasons’ food heavy tweets weren’t as popular with their followers.

Facebook

The battle for audience is neck and neck between Hilton Hotels and Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, but Hilton is growing ten times faster than Shangri-La Hotels. The rest of the hotels in this sector are far behind when looking at followers. Hilton’s brand is recognized worldwide and caters to a wider range of travelers from different price points than Shangri-La. But the latter knows luxury and has Asian travelers in mind.